DENNIS CHONG

CAREER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Dennis Chong received his B. A. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and his Ph. D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and a Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern.

He specializes in the study of American national politics and has written extensively on political ideology, social norms, rationality, political psychology, tolerance and civil liberties, and collective action. He employs various methodologies in his scholarship including surveys, mathematical models, in-depth interviews, case studies, and experimentation. His most recent publications have addressed broad issues and themes, including the changing status of racial expression in the United States, and the influence of economic status on the development of group identity among racial and ethnic minorities. He is currently engaged in studies of opinion formation on conservation and growth issues, the relationship between hate speech attitudes and behavior, and the effects of framing in competitive electoral campaigns.

He is the author of two books. Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement (University of Chicago Press, 1991) is a theoretical study of the dynamics of collective action as well as an empirical analysis of the American civil rights movement and the local and national politics that surrounded it. Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society (University of Chicago Press, 2000) is a comprehensive examination of value formation and change, group identification, and conflict over social norms and lifestyles. Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement won the William Riker Prize given by the Political Economy Section of the APSA.

Within the APSA, he has served recently on the E.E. Schattschneider awards committee and the Heinz Eulau awards committee.

He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Politics and is the co-editor of the Cambridge University Press book series, Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology.

STATEMENT OF VIEWS

As a member of the APSA Council, I would try to ensure representation of the teaching, research, and employment interests of faculty in the variety of institutions of higher education encompassed by the Association. In addition I would work on programs for expanding graduate educational opportunities for underrepresented groups. I would also be committed to extending the reach and membership of the Association by increasing participation of international scholars in the annual meeting and other venues.